AN INTERVIEW WITH BEN CARLSON OF LONG MILES COFFEE

The Carlson Family in Burundi, Africa

We recently had the privilege to interview Ben Carlson of Long Miles Coffee Project and hear about his experience living in Burundi and his heart towards unlocking potential in these special people. Well worth the read!

Tell me a little bit about how the idea of Long Miles Coffee Project came about and what drew you to Burundi.

Well, I had been in coffee previously as a coffee trader but it really came about when my wife and I were living in South Africa working for a non-profit organization. I was consulting in coffee on the side, just because I love coffee. The country of Burundi had just privatized the coffee sector and somehow this company found me. They asked me to come to Burundi and do some cuppingto see what the chances were of having specialty micro-lots coming from the country.

So I Googled Burundi…this was back in 2009…and thought, “wow, this is kind of scary. Let’s do it!” My wife and I had decided that she was going to go into photography full-time and I knew that I wanted to do something with coffee but I didn’t know what. I didn’t want to be a roaster. My wife had run a coffee shop for a year and sold it and I knew I didn’t want to run any coffee shops. And so, what else do you do? Then I said, “Oh, I’ll be a coffee buyer.” Then I got the chance to go and consult. I was in Burundi for two weeks and I said, "this is it!" It has the most amazing potential of coffee and it’s not being done well. And it’s still one of the best coffees I’ve ever had. Nobody was doing it at the time, the coffee is amazing, and I knew it could get even better.

How long have you and Kristy been in Burundi?

Well, this will be our sixth coffee season. But it’s just over five years.

Coffee in Burundi comes from hills, multiple families contributing to each “batch” of coffee. Tell me a little bit about how that works.

A lot of people think of this guy from Colombia and, here he comes with his donkey and his coffee. He washes it and he dries it and then he goes and sells it to Folgers or whoever. In Central America, there are these single estate coffees – which is why you get people asking, “Oh, is it an estate coffee?” Where as in Burundi, and a lot of East Africa, every coffee you get is made up of hundreds, if not thousands of farmers, working together to make one small lot of coffee. Long Miles is a washing station – a place for the families to bring their picked cherries to wash and process them, preparing them for roasters - serves about 3,500 families.

So if you look at the coffee that Torch is getting, it’s coming from a single hill, and that lot was made up of 200 different families. Most families have an average of 150 trees. And their production levels are less than a kilo of coffee cherries per tree. So, the reality is there is just not enough land for farmers to have more trees. We’re talking about the poorest country in the world. When I started, I would go around to all these washing stations and each washing station would have anywhere from 500 to 800 to 1,000 families. I cupped those coffees and found the best areas. It was through this process that I realized, through trial and error, these families are subsistence living. They are literally digging up what they’re going to eat today and coffee is what enables them to send one or two of their kids to school, maybe put a roof on their house or be able to pay for a wedding. It’s the one time they get cash a year.

Burundi has had a very difficult past and even now, there is a lot of turmoil. Do you believe the coffee industry in Burundi has the potential to become a stabilizing force in the country in the midst of the current tense political and social tensions?

I definitely think so. I was just at the US Embassy yesterday, and there was a guy from the European Union there who leads the political arm of the EU. As we were talking, we realized that for Long Miles to succeed, we need a stable government so that we can do business; so that we are not hindered exporting; so that there are advantageous tax codes being written and there is not an undue risk of us losing our business, we need that.

At the same time, 70% of Burundi’s GDP comes from coffee. So if coffee does not affect change in Burundi, the country is in big trouble. So, I think we went into Burundi seeing the potential of how good it (the coffee) could be, but also thinking coffee can change Burundi. Part of it is this, I’m a coffee guy and I’m drinking my own kool-aid. I’ve had lots of other coffee people tell me I’m naive; that it’s just this country and the political situation is messed up, and it’s never gonna get any better.

What we’ve seen from Long Miles perspective is, we can’t wait for the political situation to correct itself so that we can do business and affect change. The reality is that that may never happen. So are we willing to invest our lives as a family, our entire livelihood into a place that is politically unstable and may not have the hope of changing? And I guess.....we’ve done it, we are doing it, we’re all in, and here we are.

What do you think it would take for the coffee industry to grow before the political tensions are resolved?

I think what it comes down to is, coffee producers like Long Miles and our neighbor coffee producers have to start focusing on quality coffee. I think specialty coffee is the only way for Burundi to become economically viable in the coffee sector and as a country. That means we need more coffee producers to invest more in nurseries, in fertilizers, in mulch. Really, at a grassroots level, help the hundreds, and even thousands, of families that we each work with.

The only way we see change is if we invest in their (the farmers) lives and help their lives change and help them invest in their farms. And when they have a better life and their coffee is growing healthier and with a better quality, then it’s going to get more revenue for them as a family; it’s going to get more revenue for us as a producer; it’s going to get more tax revenue for the country. And then, for companies like Torch, they’re going to be happier and happier because now they have a relationship with a coffee producer that’s getting year after year, better and better quality. And then you as coffee drinker are like, “Man, this coffee just keeps getting better and better!”

That commitment to getting better year over year, that comes with your Trust Mark. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Our Trust Mark is just another way in which we bring the human element to what we do. It is a symbol of the relationship that the roaster has sought us out intentionally with the desire to build a relationship. They want to invest time and money into the people growing their coffee and in return, we commit to making the coffee we sell them each year better and better.

It’s just one way in which we strive to bring the human element to coffee. It’s just another way that we can invest in our farmers; help improve their lives.

Given everything that has happened, how do you stay focused on your mission? Is it hard to remember why you’re there?

We have a strong faith in God and we’re doing this for more than just making a profit. We want to see a transformation in community. If you’re transcending personal gain, it makes it easier to get through those rough days. That is our driving focus; something that gives us the ability to say, “It’s worth sticking with it.” Because grit alone is not going to keep us in Burundi.

And for us as a family, this is no side project, no NGO. We’re here because this is our family’s life. We have two farms, and we’re here to export coffee. We’re farmers and producers and exporters. This is our life. If this doesn’t work, then there’s nothing. In a sense, we’ve said, “We’re with you Burundi. We’re with you, farmers.” We’re farming, we’re terracing, we’re mulching, we’re searching for fertilizer with them, we’re fighting against the insects with them. If it doesn’t rain, we’re crying with them, if it rains we’re rejoicing with them. It’s life. It’s bigger than just a project or a volunteer thing.

At the end of the day, what is the most important aspect of Long Miles Coffee Project? What is the driving force behind what you do, day in and day out?

The thing we’ve really been talking about lately is just this idea of making coffee human. The human element of it. Coffee is human. How many times do hands touch each bean before it gets to the roaster – picking, sorting, floating, picking out, pulping, fermenting, grating, rinsing, pre-drying and triaging it and then drying it and triaging it again? There are over seven quality steps require human hands.

We’re constantly relying upon the human element. That’s the vision of Long Miles. Coffee. People. Potential. Coffee brought us to Burundi, but it’s really about the people. It’s about a community that can realize potential. If fact, you can see that if you follow our Instagram account. Kristi does the photography and we work really hard to capture the faces of our farmers. A lot of people, when they think about a company they think about the logo or the type-face. We don’t want that. When people think about Long Miles, we want them to think about the people, the farmers who make this happen. We really believe that we need to be advocates for making coffee human. And I think we’re starting to see the change we knew could happen in our communities.

Torch is honored to partner with Ben and Kristy as they fight to make coffee human, bringing the story of those who make it to the forefront. Check out their blog at http://www.longmilescoffeeproject.com/blog/ and instagram @longmilescoffee to follow their story and the events in Burundi that have influenced their lives in the last few years.

Thanks for taking the journey with us! Support these awesome people and Burundi by buying their coffee now!

Introducing our newest coffee and partnership with people dedicated to bring out the best of Burundi

At Torch, we believe in providing opportunity through coffee. As the second most traded commodity in the world and the livelihood of more than twenty million people, coffee can have an incredible impact. For us, it’s the people, the relationships that create that impact. Torch seeks out others that believe as we do; by investing in the human aspect of coffee we can change thousands of lives for the better.

So we are thrilled to announce a new partnership with the Long Miles Coffee Project from Burundi, Africa. Mutana Hill, meaning “we are with you always,” is available to order now. Mutana Hill comes from the edge of the Kibira forest and carries a lemon scent, boasting flavors of lemon, raspberry, and floral notes. The milky body and Asian pear finish provide a beautiful and unique coffee experience.

When we first talked about doing development work, we knew we needed to go where help was most needed and least available. Burundi is just that kind of place and Long Miles Coffee Project is a family run company bringing that idea to life.

A land-locked country just south of Rwanda, Burundi is the poorest country in the world. Twelve years of civil war between 1993 and 2006, fueled by racial tensions between Hutus and Tutsis, left an already poor country in tatters. Ninety percent of Burundi’s population works in agriculture and coffee is its most traded commodity, the backbone of the economy. For many families, selling coffee marks the difference between having food and going hungry. It’s easy to see the despair, the lingering effects of war and the anxiety over current, growing political and racial tensions. Yet Ben and Kristy Carlson, founders of the Long Miles Coffee Project, see one thing above all of that – potential.

Rolling hills make up Burundi's landscape, dotted with a patchwork of small, family-run farms. Most Burundians live off their small pieces of land, surviving on what comes out of that plot every day. Coffee is their cash-crop, the one chance they have every year to make money to send their kids to school or pay for their daughter’s wedding. They grow some of the best coffee in the world – Arabica Bourbon. With elevations of over 1,600 meters, microclimates are perfect for producing high-quality coffee. Communities are built around hills, or collides, and each batch of coffee is made up of the cherries from more than a hundred family plots. Mutana Hill is the product of more than five hundred families.

Long Miles Coffee Project is a washing station in their sixth coffee season in Burundi. What started as a simple dream to be coffee people has turned into a mission Ben and Kristy couldn’t have imagined. With the human element at the core of what they do, Long Miles provides processing for over three thousand families. Everything, with the exception of depulping, is done by hand to ensure the highest quality product, to be sold at the best price so that farmers and their families can hope for a better way of life. Education is vital to what they do, providing agronomists to the farmers to help create high yields and better sustainability so that future generations can continue to build and grow. Ben and Kristy don’t just advise and process; they farm their own land. Their boys help. They work with their neighboring farmers, attend to the trees with them, search for fertilizer with them, anxiously watch the weather with them, hope with them, dream with them.

It is an honor and a privilege for Torch to represent Burundi coffee farming families and work with an organization like Long Miles Coffee. Through building relationships with farmers and roasters, Ben and Kristy are able to provide a consistent, stable income for thousands of people. Through this partnership, we can provide more opportunity; provide the ability to break the cycle of poverty. You play a vital role in this mission every time you bring Mutana Hill home. This is who we are, what we believe, the type of people we believe in. We look forward to building this new relationship with Long Miles Coffee and seeing the impact it can have on the lives of the people in Burundi.

We are with you always Burundi.

We welcome you to buy a bag of this delicious coffee and join us to do our part in bringing stability to these families.

The Abakundakawa (“Those Who Love Coffee”) Rushashi Coffee Cooperative, located in the northern mountainous region of the district of Gakenke, is situated at an altitude of 1700-1900 meters and encompasses five distinct zones. The coffee cooperative was formed in 2004 and due to a strong women’s movement became the first Women’s Farmer Association of its kind in Rwanda.

The women of Hingakawa have seen one of the darkest periods of Rwandan history. Since this group includes both Hutu and Tutsi, the women made a decision to make poverty their mutual enemy rather than each other; and with this sentiment, they have been able to move forward and heal their community through their leadership.

After the coffee farms in Rwanda were left fallow for a time, several organizations assisted the farmers to be able to produce coffee once again. Hingakawa, as the name suggests (“Let’s Grow Coffee”), is more of a chant than it is a mere statement.

It is a resolution to fight an epidemic that has crippled and claimed lives of numerous households: Poverty. These women have had enough and have come together to yell out loud “LET’S GROW COFFEE” together and reclaim our lives.

Like every corner of this world, the African continent continues to jump leaps and bounds to shun itself from a continent that is historically known for the “rule of man”. Commonly and recently still referent to as the last frontier where women still have no rights; where dignity is a hard earned thought. When a country like Rwanda goes through a devastating genocide, it was not uncommon to hear skeptics, analysts and so-called experts refer to it as “stateless...hopeless; a country just as dotted on the map in size, is just as easy to erase off the map” – and on and on. Infuriating as it must have been to hear time and time again it added an overwhelming feeling of forlornness.

However, as relevant as it is, this is not a story of how they got there; it’s a story of who was daring enough to plant seeds of hope at the bedrock soils of underlying skulls; “The Women Coffee Farmers of Rwanda” If you had a cup of coffee today, chances are that it was planted, tendered, picked, delivered, harvested, processed, sun-dried, sorted, hulled, analyzed, bagged, transported, counted, roasted, re-bagged, ground, steeped, handcrafted, and served to you by a woman. Coffee, just like humans, has a high natural deliquescent microcosm, where the line between character and contamination is extremely fickle. After the genocide, Rwanda stood at the crossroads of the latter microcosm.

Society was broken; its only chance of survival was to have a change of heart as a society – a complete overhaul. Equality and reconciliation was not just an option, but an absolute necessity.

Coffee farmers were one of the first pillars of society that wholly embraced the trickle down messages of equality and the banishment of archaic patriarchal from the leadership of women – a cultural risk that is often not given its due credit of exemplary courage where equality is otherwise seen as taboo. A courage that is partially and significantly responsible in stitching the hearts and minds of a once torn society; a courage desperately needed in re-stitching an industry tearing at the seams of sustainability, transparency and quality. The role of women in coffee can no longer be undermined, unnoticed, or gone un-incentivized. The trick is getting to know “who” they are.

We are proud to introduce you to the brave women of Hingakawa Women’s Coffee. The journey of both the producers and product are fully traceable by a third party traceability verifier. The details to chain of custody tracking allow us to recognize these incredible women and understand what makes this coffee as special as it tastes.

Laos lies in the heart of the Asian southeast, nestled between Thailand and Vietnam. Although not nearly as well known as its neighbors, to coffee enthusiasts it is an untapped resource of rich and flavorful coffee beans. With the tropical environment and a long heavy rain season, Laos is growing beans that are among the world’s best.

Laos, despite its rich environment, is facing a huge economic crisis. Poverty spreads from cities to countryside despite the people of Laos’ hardworking perseverance. Sam Say was raised in this world. In Laos, his parents felt trapped and unable to give their son the education, resources, and experience to have a successful and fulfilled life. In the mid 1960s when Sam was just a boy, the Say family made the difficult decision of leaving Laos in pursuit of better opportunities. Family, friends, and culture were left behind in the Laos jungles as they flew to the quiet snowy mountains of Calgary, Canada.

Time passed until Laos became a distant memory to Sam. It seemed to quietly fade away as this new day was full of new faces, new language and culture, new successes, new life. Sam became an investor which opened up several opportunities, one which eventually moved him to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong his business continued to grow, but more than that, the East rekindled old memories. He was reminded of Laos, the nation that raised him, the culture of his family. His short years in Laos had impacted him greatly. They were a part of him, they were his origin, his heritage.

In 2001, Sam took his then 10 year-old-son Christian for a visit to Laos to show him his father’s homeland. And although much had changed, there remained a familiar feeling of frustration. People worked tirelessly, but were nonetheless stuck in poverty. Children Christian’s age were not able to attend school, families were hungry, and people were eager for change. Sam returned with a new understanding of his home, and also a new ambition he felt determined to follow. He knew that without escaping to Canada, he and his parents might very well be in the same trouble. Sam knew the people of Laos were looking for opportunity, and he decided he was going to do something about it.

He returned to Laos several times to visit the villages and rural countryside. The country has a hot dry season and heavy rain season giving perfect conditions for coffee farming. He conducted several surveys and discovered that a huge area of opportunity lay in these farms.

Sam discovered three elements in his surveys.

First, farmers weren’t optimizing their land. No one had taught them how to best cultivate it to have a larger yield with more bountiful crops.

Second, farmers weren’t aware of what the buyers on the market wanted. The distance, culturally and physically, between the growers and the coffee drinkers was so broad with so many middlemen trying to make a profit, the farmers had no idea who they were selling to.

Lastly, because these were low-income farmers, the banks refused to loan them money, thus keeping them in perpetual need.

Sam, along with his team, put together a plan of action for the coffee farmers. In 2006, he purchased a piece of property with 6,000 coffee trees in rural Laos and by the following year, the Crop-share Training Program was underway.

The mission of the community is simple: harvest the highest quality organic coffee bean while empoweringcoffee farmers to generate their own capital, and grow their own businesses. Already the coffee has been awarded high marks via critics at CoffeeCuppers.com with scores of 87.2 and 86.6 using the strict SCAA cupping protocol. The Crop-share Training Program brings in farmers from the local community and provides them with a plot of land, tools, food, housing, and a two year long coffee education. They meet with a mentor on a weekly basis who teaches them farming techniques, educates them about the coffee bean, and gives them insight into how to make the highest quality coffee. The farm's high standards and hands-on training ensures every harvest reaps a consistent, robust, full-bodied, and flavorful coffee bean ready for the market.

At the end of the first year, each farmer and his family is given 36% of the total profits. The second year is slightly different. Farmers use their profits from the first year to buy land the second year, as the Crop-share Training Program gives them more coffee trees and tools and housing. Again after the second 36% profit is given to each farmer.

At the end of the program, the farmers graduate with two years' education in sowing, growing, and processing coffee beans. With their profits they purchased their own land and have already begun growing their own coffee trees. Farmers go from lacking opportunity to owning land, trees, a taste for quality coffee and a knowledge of how to make their beans among the best in Laos.

Sam heard about Torch Coffee through a friend who had invested in us. Looking to expand the Crop-share Training Program’s business, Sam sent his fresh coffee beans to Torch as a potential buyer. We knew nothing about Sam’s story, the conditions of the farmers in Laos, or the bigger picture of where these beans came from. All we knew was that his coffee was incredible. The quality fantastic - herbal, smooth, sweet, and fruity. Torch asked for more samples and information about where the beans had come from, and a partnership followed. When we learned about Sam’s farm, we knew we had found an amazing opportunity, not just to sell high quality coffee, but to empower people.